Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would ... be confined to one sing...le deed from which we could never recover; we would remain the victims of its consequences forever, not unlike the sorcerer's apprentice who lacked the magic formula to break the spell.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

They had supposed their formula was fixed.They had obeyed instructions to devise...A type of cold, a type of hooded gaze.But when the Negroes came they were perplexed.These Negroes looked like men....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

The formula for achieving a successful relationship is simple: you should treat all disasters as if they were trivialities but nev...er treat a triviality as if it were a disaster.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

We must believe that "emotion recollected in tranquillity" is an inexact formula. For it is neither emotion, nor recollection, nor... without distortion of meaning, tranquillity. It is a concentration, and a new thing resulting from the concentration of a very great number of experiences which to the practical and active person would not seem to be experiences at all; it is a concentration which does not happen consciously or of deliberation. These experiences are not "recollected" and they finally unite in an atmosphere which is "tranquil" only in that it is a passive attending upon the event.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

It is, in both cases, that a spiritual life has been imparted to nature; that the solid seeming block of matter has been pervaded ...and dissolved by a thought; that this feeble human being has penetrated the vast masses of nature with an informing soul, and recognised itself in their harmony, that is, seized their law. In physics, when this is attained, the memory disburthens itself of its cumbrous catalogues of particulars, and carries centuries of observation in a single formula.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Freud was once asked what he thought a normal person should be able to do well. The questioner probably expected a complicated ans...wers. But Freud, in the curt way of his old days, is reported to have said: "Lieben und arbeiten" (to love and to work). It pays to ponder on this simple formula; it gets deeper as you think about it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Fashion required the suppression of all naturalness--'to walk upright, with unbending joints; to shake hands after the pump- handl...e formula; to look inexpressibly indifferent towards everybody and everything; and speak only in a mincing voice was to be a decorous member of society.'LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »